Dolls
by FrostBlooms
Summary: You put that down on your list of promises that might actually be kept--somewhere between nothing and nothing." Tifa on love, life, and a girl named Aerith. Cloud/Aerith, one-sided Cloud/Tifa, possible hints of Tifa/Aerith.


**Title:** Dolls  
**Characters:** Tifa, Aeris, minor bits of Cloud/ Cloud x Aeris, Tifa -- Cloud, possible hints of Tifa x Aeris.  
**Prompt:** 17. Lake for CxA 100 Themes on the forums.  
**Rating:** PG/PG-13?  
**Author's Notes:** Vaguely fits into FFVII canon. Sorry for any lack of adherence to canon quotes, but I can't remember them or find them in game scripts.

--

It wasn't easy. None of it was easy with the questionable memories and the questionable promises and the stuttering like you're admitting that _oh, hey Cloud I really really kinda like you_, but it's about some guy named Zack that you really did meet when you were still young and starry-eyed. You were still waiting for your prince to rescue you from the darkness then, but you aren't now, because those truths have been swallowed along with the truth-truth.

Luckily (or unluckily), Cloud isn't the kind of guy to press for more so he lets it go. You thank him for believing your lies and move on, but not without (out of the corner of your eye) watching Aeris tease him about his apparent jealousy over Zack and first loves-that-he-was-not. You feel your own jealousy rise up in the back of your mouth, but stuff it back down with its twin, the truth, that you had just swallowed moments earlier.

--

It's still at the forefront of your mind when, between fighting and more fighting, the team finds a small piece of available quiet time in Cosmo Canyon (except Cloud--always running about doing _something_ or another to save the world). You sit down in the damp darkness of a bar, your boots feeling suddenly very heavy as Aeris seemingly dances her way through the doorway as if she's lighter than air. You order alcohol for two even if you've never seen her drink, sit down, and let the words slip out.

"So you knew Zack?"

Aeris smiles (she knows the truth behind you and Zack already, you're sure-- she _always_ seems to know), but doesn't try to draw any truths out of you, simply shrugging off her own past easily with a, "Yes, I did, but that was in the past and this is the present."

"What was he like?"

"A little like Cloud, but less surly and grumpy. That's 100 percent Cloud." She says it with a light laugh that lingers in the air like little musical notes. You're jealous of her ability to slip so easily from it all, but swallow back your bitterness with another sip and a polite laugh of your own.

--

Three cups down for her (so many many more for you) and it's still just you, her and the lights that have been getting brighter and brighter in the room. Your laughter jumps freely into the air as Aeris, her face by then the color of her dress, tells you about how her favorite place in the world, besides her church, is a lake and waterfall near her mother's house and you just keep on laughing. She promises to you that she'll show it to you if you two ever make it back to Midgar.

You put that down on your list of promises that might actually be kept--somewhere between nothing and nothing.

--

Somewhere between Zack and Midgar's only lake, Aeris had told you something that you had wistfully chalked up to drunkenness rather than an actual slip of the tongue amounting to, "Oh hey, so I want to go on a date with Cloud and he accepted, but I don't know when to remind him about his promise, what do you think Tifa?"

You watch Cloud and Aeris leave the hotel--both smiling and looking at each other like they're the only damn people in the world--as you turn your back on them and pull your sheets over your head.

--

You are alive and breathing except for the fact that those breaths are sobs and you're sure you're a mess as you sit slouching against a tree, trying to wipe away the tears and put on a brave face.

Through your tears you can only think about how bitterly fitting it is for her and how _happy_ she would be if she wasn't _dead_. Cloud (_oh, Cloud, would you cry like that for me if I died?_) and a lake and it's oh so pretty--she's smiling as if nothing's wrong and everything's sunshine and 1 gil daisies.

You cross the promise of Midgar, flowers, lakes, sunshine and warmth off the list and the emptiness that it filled resounds in you further. You cry some more.

--

A/N: Written: 12-31-07.


End file.
